The last hurrah!

This has been a wonderful introduction to the new applications appearing on the web. What I particularly appreciated was the ability to work at my own pace and in my own space. Really good to see what others were doing also. In terms of what I enjoyed the most, the visual tools were the most fun for me as a visual person. Also, as I tend to prefer to use things that have immediate use and value, I don't "play" on the web at all. Although I won't be using all the tools in the future, this program introduced me to them so at least I can nod knowledgably when someone mentions a web tool.

The support from Lynette and her team was terrific. If only I had realised the great prizes on offer I might have put more effort in at the start! I found it very difficult to commit to the time required each week and should have blocked out 45mins as study time. I also found it odd that the original PCLMC program had 23 things, yet this program was rolled out in 9 weeks. Given my workload and that of my team, I think additional time or restructuring the program would be beneficial to enable learners of different abilities and commitment to working through the entire program. It would be interesting to know the number of staff who signed up and who didn't finish. I know that some of my team would be in this boat.

Overall, the program is terrific in terms of scope and content. To be able personally to study, but also to offer it to staff, in such a cost effective way is evidence of the worth of Web 2.0. I look forward to continuing my "playing" with the sites that I found most useful and also to continuing to discover Web 2.0 - and beyond!

Adios amigos!

E-books

Had a look around the World eBook Library - not sure how popular the files from the US government would be in general but it offers a wide range of material. The depth at this stage is lacking and I'm sure that this is being worked on. There were only a handful of Shakespeare's sonnets available.

For libraries I think there are some interesting products being developed by our suppliers. Southern Scene has small MP3 players that can be lent out where patrons supply their own headphones which look to be a good option for libraries. We will be looking to add online, downloadable books in print and audio in the future but we need our patrons to be wanting them before going to the expense.

Week 9: Podcasts

I've found podcasts useful, particularly from the State Library. When they have a special speaker and I can't attend the session, it's great to be able to download the podcast to listen to at my leisure. A better use of my time, given that it can take over an hour to travel into Melbourne, and then I've got to come back. I know that people also find them great to keep up with their favourite radio shows or interviews. The ABC has certainly embraced the technology!

Browsed podcast.net. Liked the tag options available although I couldn't find any podcasts about Terry Pratchett. Then looked at podcastalley (really like the name!) and found 3 under pratchett but not about the author. I did find an interesting podcast but, surprise surprise!, couldn't download it. Went back to podcast.net and found some on yoga but still couldn't play them. Frustrating! Tried yahoo and finally could listen to short samples online. Wasn't keen to actually pay for anything though.

My library has added podcasts to it's blog and I can see that podcasts of author visits or storytimes might be of interest to our patrons.

Week 9 : UTube

This was one of the sites that our WebMarshall definately does not like! I was not able to view any of the posts. However, if someone sends me a film I can usually view it in the email. Go figure. Here's one that was sent to me with cats talking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974

for the translation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JynBEX_kg8

I think the popularity of any web application can be gauged by when the pollies pick it up! The recent election certainly showed that they saw YouTube as another way to access younger voters. Not sure that it worked however - Australians are still suspicious of anything not seen to be genuine and sincere.

Discovering Web tools

For this exercise I chose ColourBlender to play with as I'm currently renovating and am having trouble settling on a colour to paint my bathroom. As I love colour, the currently popular options of neutrals don't suit me at all. I really love the way this works, to enable you to blend up a colour and then have suggested blends made. It certainly offers some surprising choices that I wouldn't have thought of! A very useful little tool.

http://colorblender.com/

The directory is another useful site - particularly for librarians who like to have things organized. The only problem I've found in learning about 2.0 at work is that our WebMarshall is sooooo overbearing that we are unable to access some of these applications ie vozMe which converts text to MP3. Otherwise, it's been great!

Week 8: Online web apps

Signed up and took a tour of Zoho. I can see that this could be very useful for organizations that don't want to outlay money on software packages and their continual upgrades. Great too, if there are a number of staff who work remotely. Personally, I like the organizer and the writer functions best. A good way to keep track of appointments etc.

Week 7 Wikis

Had fun with the wiki week although being a little bit of a control freak, the idea of allowing other people to edit my own creation would be a touch challenging. Added this blog to the PLCMClearning favourites under FLS banner and added a favourite book to that page.

The Collections Co-op has it's own wiki, kindly created by Dale Cousens, so I'll be practising by adding content to that. The address is : http://collectionscoop.pbwiki.com/ for interested persons to drop by.

Week 6 : continued..

Technorati - I can see that this would be a really useful tool for those people who are addicted to blogging and reading other people's blogs. The popular search introduces an element of surprise into the mix and was how I found the following film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JynBEX_kg8

Now I finally know what my cats are saying! I found over 5900 posts when doing a search on Learning 2.0 but when I put it inside quote marks it dropped to 1108. Which just goes to show that knowing search skills is still valuable - long live librarians! (just not on TV).

I very much enjoyed hearing the podcast from Chris Batt's visit, (he's the Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in the United Kingdom), especially while I was walking along the beach! I sometimes wonder about the future of lirbaries and librarians given the explosion of the interent in the last 10 years so it was great to hear some positive thoughts from someone in a key position. Listen to it too!
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/multimedia/audio/vicnet/batt_web_2.0.mp3

Tag, you're it!

Tagging is like looking into someone's notebook or filing cabinet and getting an idea on how their mind works. Someone described it as "anarchy" but it's not quite that extreme. It's being used on Fiction Connection and would be great if we could offer our patrons the option of tagging particular books that they liked. A great way to get them involved in reading and recommending to other fans of particular genres.

Fascinating to see where tags will take you. I went from Discworld to mud to discovering Shropshire's history. Not sure how the last one was supposed to work but it made sense for someone else!

This isn't really related to the Web 2 program but it's a fun and worthwhile game anyway. Free rice helps you improve your vocabulary and donate rice to ease world hunger at the same time. Go to: http://www.freerice.com and have a play. Be warned this can become quite addictive!

Created a rollyo called Fiction series. Imaginative huh? try it out at http://www.rollyo.com/ You can search for series titles across 4 different sites. I'd be interested to hear if it's useful. I don't regularly use all the sites it searches, mainly Fantastic Fiction which has to be the best on the web for info on which book comes next - or before in some cases.

LibraryThang

LibraryThing would be very useful for those people who have vast personal libraries and want to keep track of them. However, with the number of groups available, it's also value lies in it's use as a great social networking tool around reading. BTW - Check out this film to see how one US library is promoting the love of reading.

http://hclcirc.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/get-a-load-of-this/

Oh the possibilites for the evil genius in the image generators! I'll never believe a photograph again - although...you could go the other way and "touch up" photos to gild the lily. I'm sure models have been doing so for ages in which case a model could be anyone. I read a jacket blurb the other day in which the story was set in the future when Hollywood was largely digital and Marilyn Monroe was making a film with another big name star so there was no need for live action actors anymore. Good way to cut the budget I spose!

Had fun with the http://www.glassgiant.com/ site. Love the virtual chocolate bar!

Feeds are great, very easy and fun however! Blogrolling was a pain in the neck - thanks to a colleague we finally worked out how to set it up but it wasn't very clear for me. Maybe it's a generational thing? Maybe it's just how my brain works, or doesn't as the case may be.

Love the Flickr tool - it's interesting to see what photos come back from a keyword search. I entered "nebula" and retrieved a photo of a macro close up of a water drop. Beautiful photo which is very popular with Flickr users. I wish, I wish, I wish I had more time to browse through this stuff!!

So, I'm currently playing with Flickr which is very cool. What a great tool for travellers especially and being able to email the photo from your phone? I can remember colour TV being introduced, let alone anything as exciting as this! I find the quality of the photos a bit variable but there are some very interesting and creative ones there. I really liked the geo function where you can browse via a map. I had a browse of the photos around Cusco and it brought back some great memories of the trip I did there many years ago.

Now that I can see the possibilites of this site, it makes it more worthwhile investing in a good digital camera. I'm still using my very old film Minolta which is pretty much idiot proof - just what I need! SO, time to start investigating digital.....

Flexibility - it's all in the mind

Bidalasana is a yoga asana commonly called Cat Pose. The general misconception about yoga is that it only focuses on the body and being able to get your foot behind your ear. Not at all! Yoga's all about flexibility of the mind as well as the body. Learning new things everyday helps keep my mind growing and staves off the slow decline into conservatism that I see so many people experiencing - myself included! Stop learning and the brain will ossify. Learning 2.0 is a great way to gain new tech skills and continue to keep up with what's new in how people connect.

So my goal is to continue to grow, learn and never to stop!